Winter Carnival

January 24-25:

We froze our butts off to check out the ice and snow sculptures at the St. Paul Winter Carnival. This time we were not too smart. On Saturday we went to the ice sculptures without finding the location and did not wear proper clothing to be outside (it was - 30 F). We thought it would be a good time to test our camera and get some good pictures.

After 10 minutes of being outside, we ran back to our car. The pictures were not that good either, because we were not able to review them after we took them -- way too cold to take pictures without gloves...

Sunday, we went back again to check out the snow sculptures -- very different from ice sculptures. Ice sculptures are sculptures that are sculpted out of ice, while snow sculptures are sculpted out of... [are you sitting down for this?] SNOW.

This time we were smarter. We wore enough layers, gloves and hats. Got some pictures and were impressed on how skilled the artists were. Winter photography is not as easy as I thought. The contrast for a completely white scene is a bit challenging - most of my pictures were too bright because of the reflection of the snow.

After seeing the snow sculptures, we visited another winter carnival event: an orchid show. We were there for almost 2 hours -- it was ridiculously crowded, and the greenhouse only has aisles wide enough for one or two people, so everyone had to view the exhibits *one at a time*. We took many orchid pictures and they were soooooo cuuuute. I also taught V about starfruit and citrus fuit leaves. We even broke a leaf and smelled the juices in it, which totally smelled like lemon or lime. Don't tell the greenhouse keepers...

Pictures: Winners of snow and ice sculpture contests:











































Some of the orchid pictures I took: